May 8, 2014 8:47 pm

No big surprise here, as the Texans select Clowney, who many considered the best player in the draft. AFC South quarterbacks can officially begin nervous quaking, with Clowney joining J.J. Watt on a now even-more scary defensive line.

Johnny Football had to wait. The first quarterback selected was Bortles, whom Scout.com did not rank as a high-school prospect. But he used a stellar 2013 season at UCF in the American Athletic Conference to boost his stock — and he boosted it even higher than nearly everybody thought.

The Bills traded up to snag the ultra-athletic wideout, four years after they selected C.J. Spiller, a fellow Clemson alum, with the ninth overall pick. Those two will team with second-year QB E.J. Manuel to try to revitalize the struggling Bills’ offense.

Unsurprisingly, the Seahawks traded their only pick of the first round in exchange for the 40th (second round) and 108th (fourth round) overall picks. Minnesota moves up to take Bridgewater, the third and final quarterback selected in the first round.

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About

Gregg Bell joined The News Tribune in July 2014. Bell had been the director of writing for the University of Washington's athletic department for four years. He was the senior national sports writer in Seattle for The Associated Press from 2005-10, covering the Seahawks in their first Super Bowl season and beyond. He's also been The Sacramento Bee's beat writer on the Oakland Athletics and Raiders. The native of Steubenville, Ohio, is a 1993 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., and a 2000 graduate of the University of California, Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism.

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